


Always Come Back

by SummerStormFlower



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Echo is a little kid, Echo is here!, Family Feels, Gen, Little Brothers, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26976049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerStormFlower/pseuds/SummerStormFlower
Summary: Jay and Nya are going on a mission, but Echo doesn’t want them to go.
Relationships: Echo Zane & Jay Walker, Echo Zane & Nya & Jay Walker, Echo Zane & Zane (Ninjago), Nya & Echo Zane
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	Always Come Back

**Author's Note:**

> Related to “Echoes of Love”..... I suppose. Doesn’t have to be read first, unless you want background stuff. All you need to know, I’d say, is that the ninja have adopted Zane’s kid brother Echo. Basically.

Jay and Nya were getting ready to leave for a mission. Police in the south by the ocean were having trouble with rising crime and had requested assistance from the ninja. Master Wu was sending the two of them. The area would be kindest to their elemental powers. It shouldn’t take them more than a few days. 

“Think we’ve got everything?” Nya asked. 

Jay looked at their bags, going over everything they’d packed in his head. 

He nodded. “I think so.”

Nya smiled. “Great. Let’s hit the road—“

“NO!”

Suddenly, Echo was attached to Jay’s leg. His small arms and legs squeezed around Jay’s calf, holding him in place. 

Jay blinked down at him.

“Echo, what are you doing?” Nya asked. 

“Don’t go!” Echo blurted, clinging tighter to Jay’s leg.

Oh. He was doing this to them too. Echo had reacted similarly when Zane went on a solo mission. He’d cried and begged Zane to stay. He was afraid Zane was going to abandon him, like their father had. But Zane had had a good heartfelt talk with him. He would never abandon Echo. He’d explained to his little brother that they weren’t the kind of family that did that. And Echo’s fears had been appeased. 

Or it had seemed so. 

Maybe he just needed to be reminded that nobody was leaving him. 

“Echo, we’ll be back in just a couple of days,” Nya said with a gentle smile. “We’re not leaving for good. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, bud,” said Jay, combing a hand through Echo’s brown hair. “We’re not leaving you.”

“But you did before!” Echo suddenly cried. 

Jay and Nya looked at each other. 

“What do you mean?” Nya asked the child.

Echo rubbed his face on Jay’s knee, sniffling. “In the lighthouse. You guys left me,” he said, “I waited for you to come get me, but you didn’t for a long time.”

Jay’s heart was instantly wracked with guilt, and Nya hung her head sadly in shame. 

Jay knelt down awkwardly with the kid still on his leg. He placed a gentle hand on Echo’s back. 

“We’re very sorry about that,” he told him, rubbing his hand up and down Echo’s spine. “But I promise you, we will never ever do that to you again. We’ll always come back. Okay?”

Echo loosened his grip on Jay’s leg a little. He wiped his sleeve under his nose and looked up at Jay, glossy gleam still in his eyes and a pout on his face. 

“You mean that?” he asked. 

Nya then kneeled down and put her hands on Echo’s shoulders. “We mean it,” she said, smiling, and giving one of his shoulders a comforting squeeze. 

“Promise?”

Nya nodded seriously. “Promise. We’ll always come back.”

Echo relaxed finally, his expression easing. “You better not forget,” he told them. 

Jay chuckled and gave him a one-armed hug. “We won’t,” he reassured. 

Echo smiled. Then he let go of Jay’s calf completely and stepped back. “Have a safe trip then,” he said happily, like he hadn’t been near tears only moments ago. 

Jay and Nya stood up, Jay picking up their bags. 

“We’ll be back before you know it!” Nya proclaimed with a determined grin. 

Echo’s eyes were bright and he nodded. 

Jay and Nya looked at each other, then at Echo one last time. Then they left. 

Echo stood at the door for a moment longer.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up, smiling when he saw Zane was the one beside him. 

“Come,” he said, “I will show you how to beat Cole at chess.”

“He always wins!”

“Ah not always, little brother. He has a weakness, which I will teach you to exploit... but don’t tell him I told you.”

Echo giggled and followed Zane through the hall without looking back. He had faith in his family. Jay and Nya promised they would always come back. So quite obviously, they would.


End file.
